Irving visits the other Poets' Corner

May 7, 1984

Washington Irving, often called the first American man of letters, was in a writing slump when he sailed to England on business in 1815. But the literary associations Irving made in London, especially with Sir Walter Scott, inspired him to finish ''The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.'' in which some of his best-loved short stories, including ''Rip Van Winkle'' and ''The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,'' are to be found. The excerpt below is from ''Westminster Abbey'' in the ''Sketch-Book.''m

I passed some time in Poet's Corner, which occupies an end of one of the transepts or cross aisles of the abbey. The monuments are generally simple, for the lives of literary men afford no striking themes for the sculptor. Shakespeare and Addison have statues erected to their memories; but the greater part have busts, medallions, and sometimes mere inscriptions. Notwithstanding the simplicity of these memorials, I have always observed that the visitors to the abbey remain longest about them. A kinder and fonder feeling takes the place of that cold curiosity or vague admiration with which they gaze on the splendid monuments of the great and the heroic. They linger about these as about the tombs of friends and companions; for indeed there is something of companionship between the author and the reader. Other men are known to posterity only through the medium of history, which is continually growing faint and obscure; but the intercourse between the author and his fellowmen is ever new, active, and immediate. He has lived for them more than for himself; he has sacrificed surrounding enjoyments, and shut himself up from the delights of social life, that he might the more intimately commune with distant minds and distant ages. Well may the world cherish his renown; for it has been purchased not by deeds of violence and blood, but by the diligent dispensation of pleasure. Well may posterity be grateful to his memory; for he has left it an inheritance not of empty names and sounding actions, but whole treasures of wisdom, bright gems of thought, and golden veins of language.